The Career-Integrated Entrepreneur™ Podcast
You don’t need to quit your job to start your side business.
You just need the right strategy and mindset - one that works with your 9-to-5 and personal life, not against it.
The Career-Integrated Entrepreneur™ is the podcast for corporate women who want to build an online coaching business on the side - with intention, strategy, and purpose.
Hosted by Cindy Excell - ex-financial adviser, NLP practitioner, side hustle business coach, and mum of two.
This show brings you honest conversations, time-smart strategies, and practical steps to help you create income and impact before you ever take a leap.
After 19.5 years full-time corporate career in financial services and 5 years growing her online coaching business in the margins of her day job, Cindy finally went all in - not with a blind leap, but with a financial runway.
Now, she helps other corporate women do the same.
If you’ve been craving more freedom, more fulfilment, and more control over your career, you’re in the right place.
Because job security isn’t what it used to be.
And your real safety net? - is the business you quietly build on your own terms.
Subscribe now and start building the side hustle you deserve!
The Career-Integrated Entrepreneur™ Podcast
Ep28. How to Turn Your Zone of Genius into a Coaching Offer That Sells
What if you didn’t need to start from scratch?
What if the skills, strengths, and experience you already have could be the exact thing someone else is searching for right now?
In this episode, I walk you through how to take what you already know and turn it into a high-value coaching offer that’s simple, scalable, and aligned with the life you actually want.
We’re not talking about building a business from theory. We’re building from your real experience, your lived insight, and your zone of genius.
You’ll hear:
- How to find your zone of genius and why it matters
- What makes a coaching offer irresistible and scalable
- The 3 components that turn your experience into a premium offer
- Why you don’t need to wait for “ready” or get another qualification
If you’ve been wondering, “Is what I know really enough?”
This one’s for you.
Resources:
Free eBook: $5K/Month Side Coaching Business Blueprint
What if the skills, experience and the strengths you've already have are exactly what somewhere else is looking for right now? Not after another certification, not after you've built a huge audience, but exactly as you are today. This isn't just about starting a sad business. It is about recognizing that your knowledge and a skillset is already powerful enough to build a real business around, and you just need to structure it properly.
So in today's episode, I'm going to show you how to find your zone of genius. And how to turn that into a premium coaching offer that creates real income, real impact, and real freedom without burning out or starting from the scratch. Welcome to the Hustle With Heels podcast, the show for high achieving corporate woman who want more than just a paycheck.
I'm your host, Cindy Excell, financial advisor, 10 business coach, and I help high achieving corporate women. Turn your expertise into an online coaching business that brings freedom, income, and impact. Without creating your nine to five job or burning out. On this podcast, I'll share everything you need to redefine your career success, create your financial runway, and build your side coaching business on your terms.
Now, let's get started. Hey, friend, welcome back to the show. I'm so glad you're here because today I'm going to start with something I hear all the time from so many corporate, women, corporate professionals. Maybe you've said it as well. I know I'm good at what I do, but I don't know if it's enough to build a business around or maybe it sounds like this.
I'm not sure anyone would pay me for something that just feels like common sense to me. If that is you, first of all, take a deep breath. You are sought not alone. The truth is when you've spent years or even decades leading, solving problems, mentoring others, and navigating complex projects, it is so easy to miss the value of what you've already built.
It becomes normal to you. It feels even obvious as if somewhere else must have known how to do that as well. But here's the thing, it is actually not that obvious to everyone else, and that right there, that is where your opportunity lives. So let's start today with a different kind of question. What if the thing you do almost effortlessly, the thing that people are always asking you for help with the thing that you can explain, teach or guide someone through without even thinking.
It's actually the foundation of a premium coaching business because you have worked hard to build your corporate career, and you are not just an employee. You are an expert in your field. And today I want to show you how to own that expertise and turn that into a offer that creates income options and evil freedom later on.
And if you want to take this work even deeper, I've created a free guide for you. It's called the 5K Per Month Site Coaching Business Blueprint. You can grab that in a short note below and it's completely free. Alright, let's dive in. Your zone of genius is the combination of this three possible sources, which is your natural strength.
Your hard earned skills might be through education, might be through your years of working experience or your unique lived personal experience. It doesn't have to be all three at once. It might come from mostly from your corporate background. It might come from a personal transformation you've lived through, or it might come from a natural strength you've had your whole life.
Any of these can be the seed for a powerful coaching offer. It is not just about what you are good at. It is actually about the things that feel almost a second nature to you. The skills, the insights, the knowledge, the ways of thinking that you can't not bring to the table. Maybe you are the one everyone turns to when they need leadership advice, or the person who can navigate through conversations when no one else wants to, or maybe you are the one who takes those complex, overwhelming topics and somehow makes them really simple, clear, and actionable, and easy to understand by others.
Those are the signals. The signals pointing straight towards your zone of genius. But here's why so many people miss it. When you are naturally good at something, or when you are spending so many years building a skill where you don't realize how good you are in those areas, it doesn't feel special anymore.
It feels easy, and the normal, almost obvious. Because of that, you, you just assume that everyone else finds it easy too. But the reality is that they don't. They are struggling with what you found natural and easy, and that's exactly where your coaching business can be born. Now, to give you some example, some of those skillset come from your professional track record.
Like many HR professionals who build a successful career coaching business because they understand hiring inside and out, they understand how to move people on their career journey, or might be the project managers who teach overwhelmed entrepreneurs how to organize their operations or how to manage their operations in a better flow.
And some of your skillset might be coming from your personal journey. For example, in my previous fitness coaching business, I built my business around fitness, nutrition, and mindset. Not because I was a professional athlete, far from it, it's actually far from it. I wasn't at all. But because I lived the transformation myself, I wasn't just a teaching a theory.
I had worked the messy and the real world path my clients were trying to navigate. And examples of some of your skills might be coming from your natural strengths, like if you are naturally gifted at a communication connection or strategic thinking, those strengths that have always been there even before you ever stepped into a covid role.
Now, here is something really important to remember. It is not just about what you are good at. It also needs to be something you're enjoying doing. You don't actually have to be wildly passionate about it. You don't have to feel obsessed with it every day. But you do need to like enough to stick with it for the long haul.
Because we are not building six month project here, we are not building a hobby. We are building a real business. And the real business needs consistency. It needs something you can show up for, even when the initial excitement fades, even when life gets busy, even when it feels like a grind some days.
Enjoyment is the fear that makes a long-term success possible. So if you are looking at your skills and experience and wondering, could this be the foundation for my coaching business, ask yourself this. Does that solve a real tangible problem that people already want solved? And can I imagine myself helping others with a skill or knowledge consistently over time and over the long time?
And do I actually enjoy doing it enough that I can still show up for it years from now? Because at the end of the day, the right coaching offer sits at the intersection of what you are good at, what others need, what you are willing to build for the long term. In saying that, what's also important is that not every skill or experience can be turned to a coaching business.
Here are the key things to look for. Is that a real tangible problem that you can help someone solve? That requires mentorship and guidance because people don't pay for general advice. People don't pay for information. They actually pay for the solutions that can really solve their pains. If you zone of genius can help someone get from point A to point B, solve the real challenge, unlock a specific outcome they are looking for.
Or create the transformation they care deeply about. Then yes, you have the foundation for a powerful coaching offer. It is not about being good at everything. It is about finding the specific place where your experience, your strengths, and your story meets a real need in the market. And when you find it, you are no longer just offering coaching.
You are actually offering a bridge that can create a transformation that matters to your clients and that matters to your clients. Now, if you found yourself thinking things like, who am I to coach someone? I'm not qualified enough. Why would anyone listen to me? I want you to know that you are not alone.
In fact, I would be surprised if you didn't have those thoughts at some point, because here is the thing. Corporate life subtly train us to focus on what we don't know yet. It keeps us in this constant loop of improvement, chasing the next certification, the next course, the next qualification, the next professional development path, whatever that might be.
While learning and the growth are necessary and critical, there is also a downside that nobody really talks about. We start to overlook everything we already know. We normalize our expertise. We downplay our experience. We forget that the knowledge and the leadership we have built over the last 5, 10, 15, or even 20 years of our corporate career is already enough to change someone else life.
And I have been there too for years. I genuinely believe. I needed more before I could truly help people. More certification, more letters after my names, more external validation. I kept thinking, once I finish this next certificate, then I'll feel ready. But what actually happened was that my biggest breakthroughs, both for myself and then my clients.
Didn't come from theory, and it didn't come from another textbook. They came from experience, from being in the real world, solving the real problems, working with real people, talking to real people, and helping them navigate the real changes. And that's the shift I want to invite you into today. People aren't paying for your certification, they are paying for your ability to help them to get a result.
They are paying for the shortcut, the clarity, the confidence, the transformation that you can guide them through because you've already walked the path they are trying to walk. Now, I had this full episode last week talking about building unshakeable confidence in coaching. If you have any self-doubt, go check out episode 26.
All right. Now that you are starting to see a zone of genius differently, I hope the next question naturally becomes okay, but how do I actually turn this into an offer that people will pay for? Here is what I want you to know. An irresistible coaching offer isn't built on how many calls you include. Or how many hours you spend with your clients.
It is built on a few powerful components, and once you understand them, you can craft an offer that feels natural, high value, and completely aligned with the way you want to work. Now, to break them down at a high level, the first component is you need to have a clear transformation. This is the heart of your offer.
It's not about asking, what should I sell? It is about asking what a change can I help create, or what a transformation can I bring to my client? People don't pay for the coaching sessions. They pay for the outcomes they pay to move from stuck to confident, from feeling overwhelmed, to becoming more organized, from feeling overlooked to get promoted.
Examples could be helping corporate professionals lend their leadership promotions or guiding the mid-career women through successful career transitions, or could be teaching high performing team. How to manage time and energy without burning out so they can perform that role in a highly efficient way.
Or it could be building emotional resilience through some major, you know, midlife change, et cetera, whatever that is. Your offer should clearly. Answer the question that, where is my clients today and where will I take them? And that result needs to be specific. The second component of a good author is that to get to where your clients want to be, you need to create a simple and signature process.
The truth is your genius becomes even more valuable where it is structured. You might know exactly how to help someone. But your clients doesn't. They are looking for a roadmap or a blueprint. That is why it is so powerful to create your own simple framework, which is a clear journey made up of maybe three to five phases or steps that walk them through the whole transformation.
Think about like this. Maybe it's assess to clarity, to execute or from align to strategize to grow. What you are not offering, you are not just offering some random coaching sessions. You need to offer a clear path to deliver a specific transformational result. This makes your offer feels more professional, more trustworthy, and honestly more irresistible to the right people because your coaching needs to deliver the real outcome and your client's wins is your win, and that success is your success.
The last component is that you need to price. Based on your value, not your time. This is a big one. It is where so many new coaches get stuck when you price your offer. It is not about calculating your hourly rate. It is about understanding what the transformation is worth to your client. Let's say if you help someone lend their next promotion in, in that career, that increases their salary by $20,000.
How much is the transformation worth to your client, which is way more than a hundred of coaching calls, right? That's why you need to price. To reflect the value of the outcome or the transformation, not the number of Zoom calls or the number of weeks that you are delivering throughout this process.
Because when you focus on the true value you provide, your clients will feel that too. They are not just buying the coaching sessions, they are actually investing in the real result and in the real. Outcome that can change their life, their career, their income, their confidence may be all of the above as well.
Now, each of this component takes a thought strategy and intentional design. And if you are sitting here and thinking, okay, this all makes sense, but how do I actually put this all together again, the free guide I mentioned in the beginning of this episode, the 5K per month started coaching blueprint will take you through step by step and you can get that for free.
The link is in the show notes below. Now lastly, before we wrap up, I want to talk about something that is really important as well. When it comes to your offer. Something actually separates a startup business that feels heavy from a startup business that actually gives you the real freedom, which is a scalability at its simplest.
Scalability just means that you need to have a scalable offer that allows you to serve more clients without needing to work more hours. It is about creating the leverage when you first start your. Coaching business, you are most likely going to start with the one-on-one private coaching, and that's exactly what I recommend.
The one-on-one is the fastest path to get real clients results, building your confidence, and that gives you the opportunity to speak to real people and fine tuning your coaching framework and your coaching process as well as generating consistent cash flow. It is simple, it is focused, it is, it works.
But the mindset shift I want you to hold onto is this. You are not just building a short term project. You are building a real business that is the one that you want to sustain, to grow, to eventually scale, and you are in this for the long run. That's why it's important to start designing your business with scalability in mind from the beginning.
Because even though the one-on-one coaching is an incredible starting point, you will eventually reach a point where your calendar fills up. Your coaching sports are full, and your capacity hates a ceiling where more income would mean more hours. But that's not why you are here. That's why even from the very beginning of your coaching journey, it is important to start thinking bigger.
What would that look like to eventually coach more people without working more hours? That's why when you start the one-on-one coaching, that is actually the best business model to give you the opportunity to see the pattern from all the private clients you work with and which will allow you to design your signature framework or your signature coaching program.
And a few examples, like the group coaching program, instead of coaching 10 clients individually, you coach them together in a small, intimate group. And they get a community, you get a leverage and you can even blend the personalized support with group experience, such as with the group coaching. You can actually, as an LVIP offer to have this, um, one-on-one private coaching component if people opt in, which is a hybrid coaching model, and eventually.
When you are ready to, uh, scale to a bigger audience. Once you build a large audience base and you are ready to scale further, you can consider digital cost based on your framework. When you design your business this way, you are not just treating your time for money anymore. You are building a asset.
That's why I want to mention this here. Even you are very beginning of your coaching journey, even if you still have your one-on-one clients, because from day one, you are building an asset for your coaching business. This is an asset that can create income, impact, freedom, and you are creating something that can evolve with you, something that grows as your life grows, as your business grows.
You don't have to figure out everything right now. You don't have to launch a course tomorrow. You don't have to create a group program next month. You just need to start with this one. Solid premium one well offer first. Build in the way that it could eventually scale when you are ready. So that is why everything we've been talking about today, defining your transformation, building your signature framework, and the pricing based on value.
It's not just about getting your next few clients, it is about laying the foundation for a business that can expand beyond you. As we wrap up today, I want to leave you with this. You are not starting from zero. You are not trying to become an expert because you already are either, if you can't fully say that yet.
Your experience, your skills, your leadership, your lead, the wisdoms, your lead transformations, they are all enough to create real transformation for someone else. You don't need to wait for another certification. You definitely don't want to wait until you feel 100% ready. You just need to take that first step.
So if today's episode resonates with you and you are ready to take the next real step, don't forget to download my free guide that will 5K per month start a coaching blueprint. It will walk you through the step by step. Package our zone of genius into a clear, scalable, and high value coaching offer.
Even if you are still working full-time right now, the link is in the short note below and it's completely free. Thank you so much for spending time with me today, and I'm cheering you on every step of your journey, and I can't wait to see what you create here, and I'll see you next week. Thank you so much for listening to the Hustle with Heels podcast.
I hope this episode has inspired you to take action towards your sad hustle dream. If you en enjoyed this episode, please take a second to rate and review it. Each review helps me help more corporate women and early stage entrepreneurs. Just like you, don't forget to take a screenshot, share it in your Instagram stories.
All on LinkedIn and check me at Cindy Excell. I will see you next week.